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2 MDC councillors face arrest over $800

Godfrey Kurauone.

NKULUMANI MLAMBO

MASVINGO – Two senior MDC councillors are facing arrest on suspicion that they claimed $800 from Masvingo City Council to attend an Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) workshop in Kadoma but ended up at party rallies in Chiredzi and Mwenezi.

The latest developments spell doom for MDC’s narrow majority at Masvingo City Council where Nelson Chamisa is fighting to remove MDC mayor, Collen Maboke.

Masvingo Province Police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Kudakawshe Dhewa said he was still looking to see if a report was made.

If the two councillors are arrested it means there will soon be two by elections in Masvingo.

The Minister of Local Government Public Works and National Housing, July Moyo is seized with the matter and a team of investigators are descending on the local authority.

The Mirror sources said that the current Council is the most childish ever at Masvingo with the two MDC councillors wasting ratepayers money by boycotting a full council meeting on Monday to spite Maboke. The councillors are allegedly getting their instructions from above.

Sources said Ward 4 and 5 councillors, Godfrey Kurauone and Daniel Mberikunashe respectively were supposed to attend the workshop from June 15 to 16, 2018. They both collected $800 from the local authority to cater for accommodation, food and transport.

On the day of travel the two City Fathers allegedly called council and said they had a breakdown in Mvuma. They were told to wait for transport from Gweru City Council to collect them but the driver failed to find them when he got to Mvuma.

The two never attended the workshop but were seen at two rallies addressed by Nelson Chamisa in Chiredzi and Mwenezi respectively.

Both Mberikunashe and Kurauone said they had given comments on the issue to numerous other reporters and were therefore not going to comment anymore. Nelson Chamisa said that the matter had not been brought to his attention.

Masvingo Provincial chairman James Gumbi declined to comment.

Maboke told The Mirror to speak to either Gumbi or Chamisa.

“Our party president or provincial chairman are the right people to discuss such issues,” said Maboke.

“In June Kurauone, Mberikunashe and another councillor were seconded to attend a UCAZ meeting in Kadoma and were given about $800 in allowances, but later on phoned informing the Council that they experienced a breakdown around Mvuma area.

“Council organised another vehicle to ferry the duo, but they were not found at the place they claimed to have had a breakdown neither were they at the venue of the meeting,” alleged the source.